Fargo to kick tires on bike sharing system B-Cycle

B-cycle to demonstrate system in metro

FARGO – A bike-loving city commissioner and a raft of like-minded Internet voters have convinced a bicycle-sharing firm that lets users pay to cycle its bikes around cities to demonstrate the system here.

FARGO – A bike-loving city commissioner and a raft of like-minded Internet voters have convinced a bicycle-sharing firm that lets users pay to cycle its bikes around cities to demonstrate the system here.

Mike Williams, a Fargo city commissioner and local “spokes”-person for alternative transportation, led the push to get a demonstration from B-cycle.

It will be an important opportunity to “kick the tires” and see if the system will work here, he said.

He first invited B-cycle officials to come to Fargo back in June. But B-cycle didn’t put Fargo on the front burner until it blasted past Rochester, N.Y., to top the firm’s “Who Wants It More?” online contest, he said.

Williams, who promoted the contest on his AreaVoices blog and Facebook, said, “The guy (from B-cycle) said they’d never seen this type of activity.”

Fargo led voting Friday with 224,352 votes. Rochester was second with 194,477 votes; Cleveland was third with 147,471 votes; and Moorhead was fourth with 27,778 votes.

No firm date has been set, but Jones said his firm would like to show off the system during one of the Streets Alive! events scheduled Aug. 28 and Sept. 18.

During Streets Alive!, a 3-mile loop around downtown is closed to vehicles, and use is restricted to bicycles and pedestrians.

Jones said Fargo is big enough for the system, and cold weather hasn’t been an obstacle to getting bike-sharing to work elsewhere.

“I can’t wait to meet some of the folks up there that really got behind this. It’s pretty incredible,” he said. “We’re definitely looking forward to getting up there, to have the opportunity to explain what bike sharing is all about.”

Williams saw the system in use in Denver and Madison, Wis. Fargo’s pied piper of “green” transportation said that if the system looks viable, the next step would be to find a nonprofit group willing to run the system and then find financing.

“It fills a little niche. It can add a little fun. And it’s a way to make connection between transit routes,” said Williams.

Fargo’s #1 position in B-Cycle online competition brings bike share demonstration to town

Good work all, the B-Cycle website is smokin! Just spoke to the B-Cycle system coordinator they’ll be sending their traveling demonstration team and bringing a few bikes and solar powered docking stations to Fargo to demonstrate the bike share system in early September!

WaHOOO!!! Fargo’s sprinted past Rochester NY to #1 in the national online B-Cycle race! 212,600 votes, over 100,000 in less than a day! Thanks to all the Fargo Super Team for leading the way in this B-Cycle competition for them to select Fargo and bring their bike share demonstration team here for us to check it out! I invited them in early June to try to arrange a visit here this summer, racing into 1st place in a week sure helped make it happen.

Fargo’s now flown by over 299 cities, and rocketed by Rochester NY into 1st place in the nation. What’s B-Cycle about? Here’s a neat article about the San Antonio B-Cycle bike share system:

In only three months, Phillip Schrank has logged more than 750 miles using San Antonio’s bike-share program, shedding about 45 pounds. He’s B-cycle’s No. 1 user and like the Subway spokesman he’s been compared to a natural booster.

“I call myself the spokes-person” Schrank jokes.

Since the downtown bike share launched this spring, B-cycle users have logged more than 32,400 miles. Some, like Schrank, ride for health reasons, others use the bikes for transportation or just for fun. Many are also enjoying a burgeoning sense of community among riders.

Keep on clicking you bicyclists! Our goal was to pass Las Vegas (Currently #10) to be in the top 10 by the 4th of July, and we did that on July 1st. On July 6th we passed Rochester NY for 1st place with over 213,000 votes, we had over 100,000 in one day!

Keep putting in your zip code and spreading the word if you’d like to see B-Cycle bike share program in our area.

Many of the comments at Fargo’s public outreach and input at theÂ GO2030 townhall mindmixer online and opening session are centered around a more active community with more walking, biking, and transit opportunities. This might be a good fit?

Denver was the first site for this private, non-profit, bike sharing program. Now Minneapolis has the most bikes and stations in the country. Other cities with four seasons such as Madison Wisconsin, and Des Moines, Iowa also have the bike share system in place. They do shut down in the winter, even in Denver.

The stations are solar powered and use a membership card system to access a bike. It’s not meant as a bike rental system, it’s programmed to help folks get from place to place and dock it when you arrive.

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Park your B-cycle at any B-station

About Mike Williams

Name: Mike Williams
Location: Fargo, North Dakota
Website: http://www.electwilliams.com
Occupation:
Risk Manager Family Mutual Insurance
Fargo City Commissioner since 2004, re-elected in 2008 and 2012
About Me:
I'm a pragmatic optimist that's grateful for all the wonderful people in my life